We are Team Seven
by FanFicHolic
Summary: Summary: ‘Kakasensei you baka! I don’t need your pity or your apologies. Kakasensei. Let bygone be bygone.’ Just how does Sakura think about Kakashi’s neglect? Read to find out.No pairings and implied Team Sevenness.


We are Team Seven 

Summary: 'I don't need your pity or your apologies. Kaka-sensei. Let bygone be bygone.' Just how does Sakura think about Kakashi's neglect? Read to find out.

No pairings and implied Team Seven-ness.

Writing is definitely addictive. Now that I want to write so much – having a first and generous reviewer and someone has kindly added my work to her favorites make me overwhelm with happiness. I'm easy to pleased you know.

This is my third attempt, hope its better.

I've read several works about Kakashi feels sorry for not being a good enough teacher for Sakura, and I would like to put it under a different light.

**Disclaimer**: As much as I want, I don't own Naruto.

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Since the day Naruto returned from his training with Jiraiya and toke the bell test with again, Kakashi had been avoiding Sakura for days.

Given the fact that within the one thousand and nine hundred and fifty days of the time skip, when team seven was temporarily, yup, definitely temporarily disbanded – he likes to think of it that way as he couldn't stand the fact that, just maybe, team seven is disbanded forever, Sakura and he had not met each other.

Maybe occasionally passing-by in the street and exchanged polite nods and smiles, well, single-eye crinkles on Kakashi's part, but they had never stopped and actually talked with each other.

Within the forty-six thousands and eight hundred hours, they had not spend even a minute in each other's company. It's fair to say that they were totally strangers.

And none of them had paid much heed to that. Both of them are comfortable with their own personal space. Somehow, meeting the remains of team seven was just too painful for them. Seeing each other just made them more aware of the fact that Naruto and Sasuke were missing at the moment. So without spoken words, they had decided not to find each other in silent mutual understanding.

Besides, since Sakura has taken apprenticeship under the legendary fifth hokage, Tsunade-hime; she spends most of her time in honing her skills to become a formidable medic-nin. And her effort has paid off.

Kakashi, on the other hand, had returned to his old self, he took mission after mission, just liked what he did before team seven started.

With their respective hectic schedules and emotional needs, it was no surprise that they paid no heed to the isolation of each other and they did not think much about each other.

Though, after the recent bell test, something had changed in Kakashi's mind. And he started to think about a little something a bit too seriously. Somehow, Kakashi felt that the Haruno Sakura in the recent bell test's no longer the fragile and delicate cherry blossom who needed constant protection from _his_ team seven-Yes, he likes to think about team seven as _his_, _his_ Naruto, _his_ Sasuke and last but not least, _his_ Sakura. And he pondered on why and when has Sakura become the real kunoichi before he realized. Now she is, much or less, his equal, who no longer needs his protection, who has grown suddenly without his notice.

Under normal teacher-student relationship, he should be proud of her and proud of being her teacher, proud of the fact that he trained her so well.

But no. He has none of those feelings.

All he had was a weird feeling, like someone's pricking him with tiny senbons or forcing him to drink gallons of vinegar – the feeling was so sour, too sour in his opinion.

Just who is he to be proud of her?

Where was he when she grows?

Where was he when she should be trained harder?

What had him ever taught her?

The more he thought about it, the more fear he had of seeing Sakura. He knew he wouldn't be able to look her in the eyes. Heck, he can't even face her.

So, he decided to avoid her.

And somehow, this time, as Naruto has come back, their mutual understanding of not seeing each other was gone. Sakura, despite her busy work at the hospital, would like to spend some quality time with _her_ team seven.

But no, 'that stupid baka-kaka-sensei has suddenly disappeared' Sakura thought. So she started to look for him and after several failures, she started asking around for him. And it didn't take much time for her to discover the fact that Kakashi was avoiding her, intentionally. Always a systematic person, she decided to change her plan and tackle the root of the problem first – just exactly why Kakashi's avoiding her.

And that's why she was sitting in the local lounge, enduring the constant flirting of one Genma Shiranui, a twitching smile plastered on her face.

_'Baka-Kaka-sensei better has some good reasons for these, or he will have hell to pay for putting me in this annoying situation.' _Inner Sakura snared.

'Genma-san, do you know what Kakashi's up to recently?' outer Sakura asked with all the patience she's left, and mind you, which was not much at that moment. _'And put your hands away or you won't have any hands anymore!'_ inner Sakura snared and pictured thousands of methods of dismembering the jounin.

'Why, lovely flower like you would be interest in someone like Kakashi? He is a workaholic…….' It seems that someone had accidentally pressed a wrong button on Genma, which once pressed; Genma will continue flirting non-stopping.

_It's going to be a really long night. _

After many hours of insane nonsense, eventually, being the perfect medic who has been dealing with annoying patients for years and now has much improved patience when it come to annoyances, Sakura managed to pick up why Kakashi's avoiding her. And just know that she's not so happy with that.

She decided it's time to make her inhumane strength to good use and beat some sense into a certain someone.

So, there she went - putting all her ninja skills to full use and tracked Kakashi down, and after some tedious searching, she found him sitting in some weird place – in the middle of the tree which is planted, absurdly, in the middle of the market. Since there are so many people in the market, it is difficult to track someone's chakra.

But none of that is important now that she found him.

All of a sudden, Kakashi found that his Icha-Icha Paradise had been snatched away from his grasp.

He blinked, twice.

Then he found that the kunoichi, who he's been avoiding for days and was the exact reason why he's stuck in the middle of the market place and enduring all the annoying noises coming from the market, right in front of his face, with a furious expression on her otherwise angelic face.

Punch!!!!!!!!!

'Ouchhhhh….!' He winced. 'It hurts Sak….'

Before he finished his sentence, another deadly right-hooked punch was on its way to his face. And thanks goddess he had managed to side-stepped that or he will be flat on his back on the floor unconscious now.

But, as fate would have it, too shocked by the first punch and too glad of the fact that he had saved himself, he didn't see the next equally, if no more, deadly left-hook punch coming, nor did he see the forth one, the fifth one, and so on. And you got the idea – Kakashi's beaten to a bloody pulp by one Haruno Sakura, before he even acknowledged that.

Lying on the floor struggling between consciousness and the welcoming darkness, Kakashi miraculously found the ability to utter out, 'why?' to the formidable kunoichi.

'Because you are stupid!' Sakura shouted; at that moment, no one can tell the difference between inner and outer Sakura.

Seeing the confused look on Kakashi and somehow, with all the injuries courtesy of herself, her anger slowly dissipated. _Sigh. He really is clueless, isn't he?_ And she decided to explain to him.

'You are stupid as you've been avoiding me for ages, not to mention for such stupid reason. Baka-kaka-sensei!' And then there was another punch. Oops, she didn't really mean to. But the temptation's overwhelming.

At the same time, the copy-nin felt the familiar pain in his chest. He lowered his head shamefully.

'Why I had been avoiding you? Because I failed you, I am not a good teacher to you.' Kakashi muttered, almost inaudibly. 'I overlooked you, neglected you and somehow made you turned to another one for help. I made empty promises. I didn't help you to bloom. I didn't do what I should have done. I didn't make you become a kunoichi. Heck. If not for your own effort, all the potentials you have, all the achievements you could have will have gone into waste. It's my entire fault…' Kakashi went on and on, not seeing the bitter smile on Sakura's face.'…and now you understand just how much I've owed you, right?'

_Silence_.

'I don't deserve to be your teacher; you are too good of a student to be taught by someone like me…it's fair for you to beat me up, I supposed. Not that these will be enough to replace my fault though…'

'Absolutely, you deserved this! Face my wrath!' Sakura shouted mockingly.

Kakashi shut his single visibly eye, which is now swollen, and waited for the pain to come.

1 second.

2 seconds.

3 seconds.

….

Almost a minute passed but the punch never comes.

Slowly, he opened his eyes.

'Why, Sakura? I really deserved that…'

'Kaka-sensei you really are clueless, aren't you? Didn't you always tell us to look underneath the underneath?'

'I don't understand…'

'Ne, what do you think make me grow? Sensei.'

'Surely the hokage, who else? And don't call me sensei, I really don't deserve that.'

'You are wrong, sensei, and I would continue to call you sensei for my whole life. You are my sensei, and no one, not even you, can change that. Listen, I'd never say it again but you did nothing wrong at all. You said you neglect me and fail to see my potential in being a worthy kunoichi, right? But did I really have the potential when team seven first started, or when all of us were still together? The answer, as much as I hate, is a definite no. I'm sure that if Sasuke-kun never left, Naruto didn't go training with Jiraiya-sama, without all the chaos and heartbreaking, I won't be who I am today. I'll still be the lovesick teenage girl, who is far too naïve to be a worthy kunoichi. I didn't really understand what being a kunoichi is back then, all I care about was getting Sasuke-kun to notice me. All I wanted was to be loved by him. Even if you had tried to train me harder, I don't think I would had willingly trained. I would rather spend more time on my hair, on all trivial things but serious training. I was not a qualified student at that time. I didn't say it to make you feel better. That is the truth.'

Kakashi said nothing, but Sakura knew that he was listening intently and she knew he would understand.

'I believe its experiences made us grow. Its team seven makes me grow. I want to be a protector as I love you all. It's because I don't want to be on the sideline forever so I decide to train harder. It's you boys inspired me to become a kunoichi. Naruto teaches me hope and persistent. Sasuke shows me the bitterness of the world and teaches me love. And Kaka-sensei, despite your tardiness and inability to show up on time, you are an extraordinary shinobi; it's my honor to be the student of the legendary copy-ninja. And all of you teach me teamwork. You all teach me the importance of fighting together. We are team seven. So we all strive to be better. All these makes I grow, Tsunade-shishou teaches me skills, but only skills won't be enough to make me a worthy shinobi. I now understand that, it's not just skills that make you a good shinobi. Being a worthy shinobi is more than that. I don't regret anything happened in the past. I have no regrets, just sadness. We've all tried our best at that time and nothing can make me change anything happened in the past. All the past experiences make us the team seven we are now. So please don't apology to me, there is nothing to be sorry about, Sensei. Besides, what is important is the future. Even Sasuke-kun has been gone for so long now, I have full faith that we are still Team Seven, just separated physically at the moment, our hearts always stay intact. Our bonds are too strong to be broken. And this time, we will all fight for what we want.'

Kakashi couldn't say a word; Sakura has matured far beyond his imagination. She really has grown up. But this time, he doesn't feel guilty at all. Sakura's right. And they are team seven.

'Sakura, why don't we ask Naruto to train later?' Kakashi said with the small eye crinkle, 'and I can show you guys my thousands injustice, you two still have a long way to be on par with me.' And he ruffled her pink locks, a gesture so heartening to both of them.

Sakura smiled the kind of smile that she always reserves for _her_ Team Seven.

And Kakashi crinkled the kind of eye crinkle he only shows _his_ Team Seven.

'Let's get you fixed first, Kaka-sensei.'

Kakashi feels so content. Only one thought leaves on his mind:

_They are Team Seven. _

Maybe just one more thing, Sakura is really formidable now. Remembers Team Seven Survival Tips No.1 – never piss off a Haruno Sakura unless you have a dead wish.

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Till next time,

FanFicHolic


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